A (relatively) short Short Take today. NVMe protocol updates, Flash Memory Summit reports, and SNIA webinars.
- Storage Media and Technology
- Storage Companies in the News
- Industry Associations and Standards
- Webinars and Conferences
- Synology Security News
- Bonus Round
Storage Media and Technology
I was fortunate enough to meet Billy Tallis in person at Flash Memory Summit. I’m actually quite amazed that we have not crossed paths before. He’s remarkably on top of the technology, and wrote about NVMe 1.3 within days of the ratification. Now he’s written an excellent summary of EDSFF form factors for SSDs (from the FMS announcements), and once again it’s an excellent read.
I’m not really sure in which category this is supposed to go, but I suppose it can get shoved here. SolutionsReview put together a list of Top 13 Free and Open Source Storage solutions. As far as I can tell, this may very well be all of the FOSS solutions out there – she’s got everything from DIY home stuff to enterprise-level projects. I’m not sure how helpful this is unless you already know what you’re looking for.
CRN has apparently learned how to spell N-V-M-e.
64GFC Fibre Channel Analyzers are here. That means that the optics should be available in the not-too-distant future.
NAND prices continue to fall.
For the beginners, Christine Taylor of Enterprise Storage explains what you need to know about DIMM Architecture, and does a pretty damn good job of it in a short period of time.
Storage Companies in the News
Could QNAP be making a play for enterprise storage? First Fibre Channel, and now a patent for automated storage Tiering?
Computational Storage is definitely getting some headway. IDC has named NGD Systems, ScaleFlux, and Eideticom as innovators. This stuff is pretty cool, and I think it’s worth keeping a very, very close eye on.
eWeek has made a comparison of AWS vs. Azure vs. Google Cloud. They claim it’s at a high level, but “atmospheric” would probably be a better phrase. Nevertheless, if you are an absolute beginner to this, its a great starting point for someone who has heard the names, but doesn’t know much of anything beyond that.
The GreyBeards podcast talks about NVMe/TCP with LightBits Labs. It’s a pretty good rundown of how NVMe/TCP works, and what LightBits Labs (the primary authors of the spec) are doing to productize the technology.
Please take off your hat in memoriam. A remarkably thorough list of defunct storage startups will take you down memory lane. (link will disappear behind a paywall soon).
Speaking of which, say goodbye to Pillar, as Oracle decimates the organization.
Tom’s Hardware says you can build your own external SSD. Well, yeah, technically…
Industry Associations and Standards
There’s an interesting article in Data Center Knowledge, What Switching to NVMe Means to the Data Center, where Alex McDonald, my SNIA colleague and co-chair or the SNIA Solid State Storage Initiative discusses the long-term fundamental impact of NVMe.
SwiftStack has created its own Technology Partner Program, called “Works with SwiftStack.”
NVM Express won the Flash Memory Summit Best in Show award for “Most Innovative Flash Memory Technology Award” for the NVMe-oF 1.1 specification. The official release of NVMe-oF 1.1 is on track for being released in September.
You can download the NVMe 1.4 specification now, as well.
Storage Architect (a.k.a. Chris Evans) is bullish on NVMe.
Webinars and Conferences
On-demand FCIA webcast: Fibre Channel and Security is now available on demand. Listen to my expert FCIA colleagues, Nishant Lodha and Brandon Hoff, as they provide a deep dive into the security aspects of Fibre Channel.
SNIA Storage Developer Conference (SDC) podcasts – If you like to get your information on-the-go, check out the SNIA SDC podcast series. It was recently rated, Top 8 Data Storage Podcasts You Should Listen To, by Data Center Solutions Review. There are over 100 podcasts available on important technical topics. Each episode is hand selected by the SNIA Technical Council from presentations at SDC.
NVM Express, Inc. has posted a FMS 2019 recap blog, detailing the important NVMe moments from the event. One of the most memorable, Eric Burgener of IDC presented data that predicted NVMe All-Flash Arrays will drive over 50% of the primary external storage revenue by 2021. You can download the NVM Express FMS presentations as well.
Nick Adams, Platform Storage Architect at Intel and David Woolf, Senior Engineer, Data Center Technologies at the UNH-IOL will be representing NVM Express, Inc. in an upcoming webinar detailing the newly released NVMe 1.4 specification. “NVMe™ 1.4 Features and Compliance: Everything You Need To Know” will provide an overview and usages for a number of the new features in the NVMe 1.4 Specification, as well as how these new features will be tested for compliance and interoperability.
Speaking of Nick and David, the three of us will be presenting on NVMe Refactoring to the 2.0 specification at SDC in September. We pulled the short straw and get the first sessions on Monday morning!
Synology Security News
No new security vulnerabilities to report. Please see earlier Storage Short Takes for additional Synology advisories. Some of those vulnerabilities are still active.
Bonus Round
Okay, come on. This is just cool. Boeing has been assigned a patent on having a secure NAS node onboard a flying plane.
Oh, and Data Storage Solution Review has released the 12 best Storage Blogs. Snubbed again. Oh, well.
Special thanks to Diane Marsili and Sophia Meyer, who contributed items for this Short Take.